EN9C2 Assessment Brief

EN9C2: Literature and the Lifecourse: Assessment Brief

Essay

Choosing a topic for your essay is extremely important. Early planning is vital and will help you pace your work throughout the year. You must discuss your ideas for an essay topic carefully with your tutor well in advance of the deadline.

Your essay must address the learning outcomes for the module:

§ Through reading modern and contemporary fiction and lifewriting, interpret and evaluate its contribution to our understanding of key phases and transitions in the lifecourse.

§ Understand and demonstrate advanced, detailed subject knowledge and professional competencies informed by recent research/scholarship at the forefront of the discipline.

§ Demonstrate a conceptual understanding of age and its representations which enables the development and sustaining of an independent argument.

§ Critique, evaluate and advance the current debates around age and literature.

§ Working under your own initiative, deploy and communicate complex techniques of analysis and enquiry within the discipline.

§ Independently formulate an original hypothesis on representations of age, and develop an appropriate conceptual framework to pursue it.

§ Evaluate the uncertainty, ambiguity and limitations of knowledge in the discipline.

§ Make appropriate use of criticism, theory and primary sources from different disciplines, including medicine, psychology, psychoanalysis, philosophy, history, genre studies.

§ Engage with current scholarship on key debates relating to the cultural conception of childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age.

§ Give a professional, relevant, well-structured, well-paced, well-delivered oral presentation. [see below]

Essays should be 6,000 words. Marks will be deducted for essays that exceed the word-length plus or minus 10%.

In marking, examiners will reward cogency of argument, the use of appropriate material, stylistic excellence and good presentation. Candidates must also satisfy examiners that they have carried out the work required by the module and met the learning outcomes.

You are advised to write your essays using MLA conventions; if you choose another style format, please make sure you are consistent within the essay submitted.

All essays and dissertations must have a Bibliography or Works Cited. There should also be correct and full referencing of sources as in-text citation, as footnotes or as endnotes.

Presentation assessment brief

The presentation will be 15 minutes long, and delivered in the seminar in week 10. You will submit your slides or a transcript of the presentation to Tabula, but the live presentation itself will be what is marked according to the criteria below.

	Comprehension	Critique/ analysis	Presentation
Grade A: 70-100	Use of good range of relevant sources, well understood and fully appreciated.	Distinctive perspective on the theme. Ability to set sources and viewpoints in context and evaluate contributions. Methodological awareness and theoretical appreciation.	Well-structured and planned. Clear, articulate style and delivery. Proper referencing and bibliography. Confident presentation and appropriate length.
Grade B: 60-69	Good understanding of main sources and used in a relevant way.	Good relevance to the theme. Appreciation of main issues and ability to make appropriate critical points. Sensible commentary on evidence and materials used. Use of critical/theoretical perspectives.	Competent structure. Clear style and delivery. Proper referencing and bibliography. Control of length.
Grade C: 50-59	Understanding of the literature and fair range of source material consulted.	Sensible commentary on evidence and materials used. Analysis relevant to the theme.	Coherent presentation. Satisfactory referencing and bibliography.
Grade D: 40-49	Some evidence of reading and understanding.	Mainly descriptive unsubstantiated points. Effort made to relate ideas and analysis to the theme.	Attempt made at coherent presentation. Uneven referencing.
Grade E: 0-39	Few relevant sources used. Poor understanding.	Irrelevant comments. Lack of any analytical, critical or appreciative framework.	Unstructured presentation, lack of coherence, unclear delivery, poor referencing.